Planet Tony on breakfast news

Nigel from Telepathy spotted Planet 10 — which we made together — spinning away in the background as Blair gave a speech on education recently. This was the speech if you have the inclination to read it.

Solar System Explorer

Ever fancied a planet of your own design? Wondered what would happen if you then let it loose in the Solar System? Well theat’s just what you can do with Planet 10, a Shockwave 3D project that I programmed at Telepathy for NESTA’s Planet Science website way back in 2001.

This page describes the process of creating a cross-platform Director CDROM. It is based on an original posting on Direct-L by Kevin M. Dean at Rhubarb Productions. I have amended it for eCD creation and updating existing CD setups. Please email me if you have any comments or suggestions about the instructions on this page, and I will include them in the next revision. Thanks.

The main interface of the audio toy

My latest little programming project has gone live on Planet Science today – it’s a recorder and sequencer made in Shockwave. The idea is to allow the anatomy of sound to be explored in a (hopefully) entertaining way. Don’t expect something as sophiticated as Cubase or Logic, though…

HyperFilm is a prototype interactive film that I made way back in 1997. I’ve rebuilt the online production file which used to reside on my Flowmotion site here.

Click here to go to the Online Production File

If you already have a copy of the film on CDROM, you can use this production file to find out more about the film. If you would like a copy of the film, please email me.

The days are getting longer… but it’s still winter until March 21st. In the meantime, here’s a resurrection of my seasonal game for you all. All the best.

Shockwave Status:

Click here to play

Welcome to the new home of my cropping tool.

Cropper is a visual tool for Director which allows you to crop images directly in your movie’s cast libraries, while keeping their regPoints intact. You can also crop a button from it’s background, produce identically cropped On and Roll states, and drop it on the score for perfect positioning.

If you’ve ever spent hours in the Paint Window preparing buttons so they don’t jitter on rollover, or erasing unwanted areas of an image to keep its regPoint then you’ll know exactly why I made this.

These recording sessions took place in musicians’ houses in and around Bhuj, Gujarat, an area known as the Rann of Kutchh in January 1999. Located a stone’s throw from the India/Pakistan border, it remains one of the more remote parts of India.

Shockwave Status:

Click here to play

Much of the local musical heritage is under threat of extinction as traditional instruments fall out of favour with the younger generation. The music could not have been recorded without the kind assistance of Mr Umesh Jadia of the Museum of Kutchh in Bhuj.

Postscript: As a consequence of the earthquake disaster in the region the following year, much of Bhuj was destroyed. I dearly wish I could find out if the people I worked with and recorded are still around. So far, I’ve found no way of confirming whether they are alive or dead, and this still makes me feel very sad when I hear their beautiful music.

The upgraded and expanded demo for the second TOTP CDROM.

Sadly, these two demos only stay online because Telepathy host them. The BBC seem to have kind of given up on TOTP’s interactive content, though I’ve heard that they are busy transferring their focus to interactive TV instead. Since CDROMs seem to have died a death as an entertainment medium, this is probably a wise move.

Shockwave Status:

Click here to play

This is the first transfer of the Shockwave movies which used to be on my Flowmotion site.

The first TOTP CDROM was my first major interactive project – I spent six months of my life getting my head round the quirks and intricacies of Director to program it. A six month spell of working in India followed, as a means of rekindling my creative energies.

Still, winning the Macromedia UCON Best Entertainment CDROM award kind of compensated for all the heart- (and head-) aches. Now that Nigel and Sarah are leaving to spend the next few years on tropical beaches, I wonder what will become of the beautiful plastic award that used to sit on the shelf in the Telepathy toilets?

Shockwave Status:

Click here to play